Laser powder bed fusion technology has been chosen by Progressive Technology and provides significant benefits when producing F1 components such as increasing strength and the R&D time required to produce new designs with the biggest benefit coming from weight reduction.

A key part of this additive manufacturing process is the handling of the powders used to produce the parts. Metal powders such as titanium, aluminium and Inconel are commonly used to produce the parts for F1 cars and therefore to ensure their quality, the powder must be qualified before use and after the build process is complete the unused powder is reclaimed and requalified.

Initially, the method used to process the metal AM powder was very time consuming with high product wastage. Now, Progressive Technology relies upon the Russell AMPro Sieve Station™ as an automated solution to AM powder handling.

Printer processing times can take an average of 20 hours to complete, and therefore it is imperative production downtime is kept to a minimum. With the installation of the Russell AMPro Sieve Station™, Progressive Technology has been able to double productivity with only half the labor previously used.

The key to the Russell AMPro Sieve Station™ is how every detail has been carefully designed and incorporated into one system resulting in a fully-automated process. An intuitive interactive user interface brings together all elements of the system and allows for a fully programmable one touch operation which minimizes operator involvement. The system is completely modular, designed to integrate directly into an existing build process within DMLS, LMD, SLM, SLS and EBM systems.